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The bodies of the dead are carried,massed in their final resting place,laid away from the hive, unburied. This task falls on shoulders wearied—Mahogany boxes, wooden faces.The bodies of our dead are carried. Humans go below ground to be buried.Bees are piled above, in the shade,laid away from the hive, unburied.Continue Reading

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“Do you ever feel restless?” Asked the worker of a drone. “Long to live beyond the structuresThe hexagons of honeycombs? Ever feel we’re something more Than antenna twitches And wing flicks And buzzing bands of yellow In vast washes of green Under distant blankets of blue? Away from the queenApartContinue Reading

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He the hairy-footed flower beegoes around comes aroundgingery brown buzzes a humover lungworts, dead nettles bumps from his shallow hollow nestto find a mate before he dieswanting a new humthat will wrap him in pollen far from humorous bravadoof wings vibrating the airwhich is what we want:a final hymn unembellishedContinue Reading

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Open the closed beehive,Conquistadors are lurking our world. Maps of destinies merging our florals. My past meets my present,My future meets my past.My present is the end.All interconnected. I meet another bee,Another dimension eclipses me,Entreated with a new queen bee, Just not the same bee universe… Usurped my wrecked world,ChoicesContinue Reading

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came from nowhere, descended in a dark swarm,surrounded the stacked wooden boxes.Zinging hums in heated crescendo—they crawled over the surface, crowding white paintto brown, clustered in combat with our bees,trying to fight their way into the home hive.We stood at the window and watched, helplessto halt the carnage, to saveContinue Reading

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Estranged from my family, I was surprised at the call.“Master Anders?” said the voice. There was a distinct buzzing, what might have been electrical interference or perhaps–“Yes? Yes? Hello,” I said. “Yes. This is Anders. Hello?”The voice on the line began a coughing fit. He had covered the receiver withContinue Reading

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I peek into wherewe keep them too weak nowbut to lean in nearly kneelingat worship only cleared tospeak of them in these newsleaks & hearsay I’ve had to swearoff from honeyed lips Mark DeCarteret has been working at Water Street Books in Exeter NH for 10 years. Worked at StroudwaterContinue Reading

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Such buzz the honey bee:small wonder Miles Davislived in a bee-loud glenwhen he played his hornlet his wings vibratefrom bee balmto marsh blazing star. John Davis is a polio survivor and the author of Gigs and The Reservist. His work has appeared recently in DMQ Review, Iron Horse Literary Review,Continue Reading

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I walked in my house stuffed with honey…Those hands are filled with my own honeycombs… I filled my jars with my own orange marmalade. My beehive was swarmed with nectar… Their juice and nutritions are nothing,My bees love me but I was a mere hobby beekeeper in my heart… IContinue Reading

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Your brother posted a pictureof his tattooed arm: a stenciledhoneycomb, black hexagonsinked around his flexed bicep,a math equation written in your handin a space between joined cells.He said this tattoo commemoratedyour birthday one year after your death.I live six hundred miles away. I’ve never shownmy bee poems to him, orContinue Reading